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On the Couch... with Dick Cavett | Psychology Today

Cavett: I remember being alone in Montauk by the sea one time, feeling very, very depressed. My late wife was away doing a play in Chicago. It took all that I had to just get the dog to come upstairs and turn on the television. Well, on came an old "Saturday Night Live" episode that I happened to be hosting. I saw myself smiling, cheerful - happy as a clam. I was sparkling. I was funny. And watching that was like a tonic. Had I not watched it, I think I might have stayed in that drowning darkness for more days. Perhaps it can be an area researched more in psychology. You know, seeing yourself in happier times. Maybe there's something to that.

Tina Fey on momdom

Even with a joke, anchoring moves an offer up 10%

As expected, participants did anchor on the first number presented during the salary negotiation — even when that number was intended as a joke. When the bidding started off with the mention of $100,000 the average offer was $35,385 compared to an offer of $32,463 for the control group. That is, the high salary joke actually paid off with an extra $3,000 a year.

PC is for wussies (just don't call me a hick!)

Objecting to this sort of thing is for the coddled, the liberal, the élite. […] The ability to shrug off the mean crack, the sexist joke, the gratuitous jab at the weak is, in some quarters, seen as a form of strength, of “being flexible,” of “not taking shit serious.” A woman who wilts at a sexist joke won’t last long in certain workplaces. A guy who prioritizes the sensitive side of his nature will, trust me, not thrive in the slaughterhouse. This willingness to gloss over crudeness becomes, then, an encoded sign of competence, strength, and reliability. Above all, Trump supporters are “not politically correct,” which, as far as I can tell, means that they have a particular aversion to that psychological moment when, having thought something, you decide that it is not a good thought, and might pointlessly hurt someone’s feelings, and therefore decline to say it.

Punishments for slander or sedition

Wheel of fortune

Common knowledge

Discussion between two prison inmates:
– What are you in for?
– I created a comic strip, where I wrote that our president is a moron.
– So, what article of the criminal code did they use to convict you: for slander or for extremism?
– Neither of those. It was for the disclosure of state secrets!

The happy and the sad

Two former schoolmates met in the street.
"Where do you work?"
"I am a school teacher. And what about you?"
"I work for the KGB."
"Oh, and what are you doing at the KGB?"
"We unearth those who are dissatisfied."
"You mean, there are also some who are satisfied?"
"Those who are satisfied are dealt with by the Division for the Fight Against the Embezzlements of the Socialist Property."

Biggest data

In a collective farm, a pig gave birth to three piglets. The Party committee was
convened and decided that to report about only three piglets would make a bad impression
in the district Party committee. So, they reported that five piglets were born in the
farm. The district Party committee reported to the Region Party committee that seven
piglets were born in the collective farm. In their report to the Ministry of Agriculture,
the Region Party committee advised that the socialist obligation to increase the number of
pigs by twelve, has been successfully fulfilled. To please comrade Brezhnev, the Ministry
reported that twenty piglets were born, ahead of the planned date.
"Very good," comrade Brezhnev said. "Three piglets you'll give to the
workers of Leningrad. Three you'll give to the heroic city of Moscow. Five you'll put
aside for exports. Five you'll send to the starving African children. The rest you store
as a strategic food reserve. Nobody shall touch it!"

The 7 paradoxes of the socialist state

Seven paradoxes of the socialist state:
Nobody works, but the plan is always fulfilled. The plan is fulfilled, but the shelves
in the stores are empty. The shelves are empty, but nobody starves; nobody starves, but
everybody is unhappy; everybody is unhappy, but nobody complains; nobody complains, but
the jails are full.

When feedback isn't a loop

When Brezhnev visited the USA, the American president asked him, "Mister
Brezhnev, what is your hobby?"
"I collect anecdotes the people tell about me."
"And how big is your collection?"
"As of yesterday, the tenth camp was almost full."

Who will judge the comics?

A judge walks out of the courtroom, laughing loudly. A colleague asks, "What
is it you laugh about?"
"Ah, I just heard an excellent anecdote," the judge says, sweeping tears of
laughter.
"An anecdote? Tell me!"
"Are you crazy? I just sentenced a man to ten years for that anecdote."

Managing expectations

To alleviate the perennial shortages of butter, The Politburo of the Communist
Party ordered the Soviet scientists to develop a technology for converting shit into
butter, and to complete this project on or before the anniversary of the Great October
Socialist Revolution. After six months of work, the Politburo demanded an interim progress
report. The scientists reported that they had achieved a 50% success. The party requested
elaboration. The reply from the Academy of Sciences explained, "One can already
spread it, but not yet eat it."

Songs of sanity

An inspecting commission came to a lunatics asylum. To greet them, a choir of the
patients sang a song from a popular movie that says "Oh, how good it is to live in
the Soviet land!"
The commission noticed that one of the men did not sing.
"Why are you not singing?"
"I'm not crazy, I'm a nurse's aide here."

Writing about the null state

Two brothers, John, and Bob, who lived in America and were members of the
communist party, decided to emigrate to the USSR. Even though they didn't believe the
American media's negative reports on the conditions in the USSR, they decided to exercise
caution. First, only John would go to Russia to test the waters. If, contrary to the media
reports, the living conditions would be found good, and the reports about persecutions by
the KGB false, than John would write a letter to Bob using black ink whose color would signify that the letter is to
be taken at face value. If, though, the situation in the USSR happened to be bad, and John
would be afraid of writing the truth, he would use red ink thus indicating that
whatever he says in the letter must not be believed.
In three months John sent his first report. It was in black ink and read, "Dear brother Bob! I'm so happy
here! It's a beautiful country, I enjoy complete freedom, and high standard of living. All
the capitalist press wrote was lies. Everything is readily available! There is only one
small thing of which there's shortage, namely red ink."

Recycling

A woman walking in the street is carrying a bag full of rolls of toilet paper.
A passer-by opens his mouth, "Hey, mother, where did you buy it?"
"Buy? Are you crazy? Where could I buy it nowadays? They are five years old. I am
taking them back from the cleaners."

Over-engineering a watch

A Polish tourist comes back home after visiting the USSR. He carries two very
large and heavy suitcases. On his wrist is a new Soviet-made watch. He tells the customs
man: "This is a new Soviet watch. It's a wonder unknown in the capitalist countries.
You see, it shows time, the rate of your pulse beats, the phases of the Moon, the weather
in Warsaw, Moscow, and New York, and more and more!"
"Yes, it's a wonder," the customs man agrees. "And what is it you have
in these big suitcases?"
"Oh, it's just the batteries for that watch."

Planning for all contingencies

At a meeting in a factory, a lecturer from the district Party committee tells the
workers about their bright future in the USSR.
"See, comrades, after this five-year plan is completed, every family will have a
separate apartment. After the next five-year plan is completed, every worker will have a
car! And after one more five-year plan is completed, every family will own an
airplane!"
From the audience, somebody asks, "What the hell one may need an airplane
for?"
"Don't you see comrades? Let's say, there are shortages in potatoes supplies in
your city. No problem! You take your own plane, fly to Moscow and buy potatoes!"

Between a rock and a hard place

A Jew applied for a visa to leave for Israel. During an interview at the passport
office, the official asked, "Why do you want to leave the best country in the
world?"
"I have two reasons," the Jew answered. "One is that my neighbor is an
anti-Semite, and when he's drunk, he knocks at my door and shouts, 'Just wait, as soon as
the Soviet regime is over with, we kill you, Jews!"
"But you shouldn't worry," the official said. "The Soviet state is
forever."
"That is my second reason," the Jew said.

The pen is mightier

Napoleon was resurrected and came to Moscow on November 7, when a military parade
is held to commemorate the 1917 Bolsheviks' upheaval. Brezhnev invited Napoleon to watch
the parade. Napoleon, instead of watching the tanks and rockets, read the Pravda(4)
newspaper with a great interest. The Minister of Defense whispered, "Your Majesty,
look at this military technique. If you had such tanks, you would've won at
Waterloo."
To that, Napoleon answered, "If I had such press as yours is, nobody would ever
know I lost at Waterloo."